Jia Zhangke is back!
…less than two years after his last movie premiered, and about 12 months since it opened in the U.S., but the world’s best filmmakers getting new projects into motion is always a good thing, surely. And this next one sounds awfully promising: according to Variety, he’s partnered with MK2 for a project their own Juliette Schrameck describes as “an epic love story which unfolds over 15 years, as well as a thriller taking place in China’s crime underworld.”
Titled Money & Love, it starts in Datong, China circa 2001 and follows a young dancer, Qiao, who falls in love with a mobster, Bin, and ends up in jail after firing a shot to protect him during a gang fight. After serving a five-year jail sentence, she “goes looking for Bin to try and start all over again.”
All of which sounds like familiar ground for Jia, from the crime elements of his debut feature, Xiao Wu, to the time-spanning of Mountains May Depart. (That being my favorite film of 2016, it’s not raised as any cause for concern.) We await more details, including the inevitable casting of Zhao Tao, and shall provide them when they come in. In the meantime, read my interview with Jia and Zhao from last year.